As a child, Kasim Hafeez often heard his father praising Adolf
Hitler, lamenting only the Nazi tyrant´s failure to kill even more
Jews during World War II. A son to a British family of Pakistani
origin, he grew up in a fundamentalist Muslim community that called
for the destruction of all Jews and taught him to believe that that
Israel is a terror state.

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But after years of taking part in anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic
activity, Hafeez´s beliefs took an unexpected 180-degree turn. The
man who now calls himself "a proud Muslim Zionist" has arrived in
Israel for a four-day visit on Saturday as part of his effort to
battle misinformation about the Jewish state.

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In a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and the press
on Sunday, Hafeez noted that much of the hatred and intolerance of
Israel stems from ignorance.

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"I´ve always said that (the problem) with Israeli advocacy (is that)
we´re not getting the truth out there," he said. "(…) People don´t
know the facts. I would say to anybody, come to Israel. See the
rights that Muslims have.

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"It´s a beautiful thing, Israel is truly a nation of all its
citizens," he added.

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UK media´s bias

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The activist and blogger´s perception of the Jewish state changed a
few years ago, after he came upon a copy of Alan Dershowitz’s "The
Case for Israel."

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He initially dismissed the book as "vile Zionist propaganda," but
decided to read it after all – a decision that stirred what he
calls "a real crisis of conscience" and led him to a period of
research and soul-searching. His studies and a visit to Holy Land
eventually taught him to love Israel and prompted him to join
StandWithUs, an international pro-Israel advocacy group. He now
operates the Israel Campaign, a venture that aims to educate about
Israel.

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Hafeez said on Sunday that the media in the United Kingdom
demonstrates a deep bias against Israel, a phenomenon he says has a
hand in turning the public against the Jewish state.

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"Israel can do no right in the UK press," he said. "Israel is always
wrong and everything has a very negative slant.

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"It has become very black and white, where the Palestinians are
right, and Israel is wrong… It is helping to poison people towards
Israel because they are not being told the truth of the conflict. I
think there is a case where if you tell a lie enough times, people
accept it as being true."

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´Palestinian state never existed´

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His mission, he said, is to prevent others from growing up brain-
washed, the way that he did.

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"It´s so key that we get the facts out there," he said. "We´re
sitting here in the Middle East´s only liberal democracy, where there
are no restrictions on what people can believe. People can vote for
their leaders. People of all colors, all races, all backgrounds co-
exist here, and people just don´t know," he says.

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Hafeez lauds a video made by Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon and
StandWithUs, noting that its value lies with the way it relays the
truth about the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

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"A Palestinian state never existed," he said. "It´s a fact and people
don´t know it."

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In their meeting Sunday, Ayalon urged Hafeez to organize a group of
European Muslims who would visit Israel and learn about the country.